Like many of you, we’ve been keeping an eye on AI’s ongoing evolution in the workplace. From the healthcare realm to the legal field, it’s safe to say that most industries will see significant transformations through this tech. Even unions are using AI tools for organizing purposes, which gives employers another reason to sharpen their skills. As for workers, they are understandably tense about keeping their jobs through the rising wave.
We’ve addressed why these fears are a tale as old as time, and a historical lens remains necessary to put AI into perspective. After all, the printing press clearly didn’t eliminate writing jobs although it did transform the work that writers do. That’s one point made by Harvard economist David Deming during a recent Solutions podcast episode, “How To AI-Proof Your Job.”
Since professionals everywhere are dabbling with LLMs including ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, it’s important to view the current tech wave through a historical lens, too. Deming has done the work of digging into past tech revolutions and their impact on the U.S. labor market, and guess what? He’s not too concerned about predictions of an “jobs apocalypse.”
His reasoning about AI-proofing one’s livelihood is worth listening to:
Yes, this has happened before: Deming acknowledges that AI will be “tremendously disruptive,” but he points towards other major shifts in the employment market wrought by electricity, steam power, and personal computers, each of which led to new careers ultimately being created.
The big one: Deming namechecked the most significant tech shift, from subsistence farming to large-scale farming, in U.S. history. This ended the necessity of every family doing their own farming and, in time, led to job diversification and a much more prosperous U.S. society.
What are the real risks of AI in the workplace? The AI hype should not be discounted, but Deming also calls this a time of “experimentation.” As a result, workers who are worried about future-proofing their jobs should learn how to use AI better than the competition.
In other words, don’t let the AI use you. Be the human using the AI:
- Use AI to take care of time-consuming, rote tasks and free up time for strategizing, innovation, and other creativity-fueled activities.
- Know that job expectations will change. Overall productivity can and will increase for workers using AI. Deming believes that the AI “winners” will find more to do with their extra time.
- Human connection will still matter most. Even if AI changes what the economy values, those who have formed important relationships will be able to draw upon them while also upskilling.
- Remember that AI is a convincing generalist but not an expert: On this point, Deming advises workers to use AI to shore up weak areas of knowledge but not to rely on it for their field of expertise.
Our own Phil Wilson has written on LinkedIn about using AI tools, which not only save time but “actually deliver meaningful value,” on a day-to-day basis at LRI Consulting Services. Indeed, AI can be an invaluable “assistant” who can kickstart research and drafts, thereby freeing up creative energy for more detailed parts of a project.
To each their own, but those who don’t embrace and learn the ways of AI, including LLMs, run the risk of being left behind as workplaces transform.
